Australians back calls for armed security guards after Westfield Bondi Junction and Wakeley stabbing attacks

Australians have reacted after a former top cop said recent stabbing attacks are a “wake up call” to reassess security in public places. Take our poll.

Australians have backed calls to have armed security guards in public places following recent stabbing attacks that sent shockwaves across the country.

Retired NSW Detective and Sergeant Peter Moroney, who brought down one of the largest terror plots on home soil, said the two attacks at Sydney’s Westfield Bondi Junction and Wakeley’s Christ the Good Shepherd were a “wake up call” to reassess security in public places.

Hundreds of Australians agreed with the former top cop in our reader poll, with 76 per cent supporting the idea of guards being armed in places like shopping centres, while less than 25 per cent disagreed with the proposal.

Former Detective Sergeant Peter Moroney brought down one of the largest terror plots on home soil. Picture: Tim Hunter.

Mr Moroney also said the two attacks will be a “turning point”, like 9/11 was for the US.

“If you think of that analogy about the World Trade Center, no one would have ever thought that as a foreseeable risk two planes hitting a building,” Mr Moroney said.

“But I can give you a guarantee that a lot of that’s now brought into planning.

“It has to be now known an active armed offender, and whether that offender’s armed with a baseball bat, a knife, or a weapon, it’s a foreseeable risk.

“And I think it’s a wake up call for industry and sectors as a whole that these things can now occur and they have occurred.”

Mr Moroney, who ran Operation Pendennis, Australia’s largest counter terrorism operation to date which busted linked terror cells in Sydney and Melbourne plotting mass casualty attacks.

He said the attacks have highlighted new vulnerabilities.

“It’s unfortunate but we’ve got to deal with it,” he said.

“We can’t bury our heads in the sand about it.”

Joel Cauchi as he went on a stabbing rampage in Westfields Bondi Junction. Picture: 9 NEWS Picture: 9 NEWS

Pictured the 16 year old who allegedly stabbed Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel. Picture: Twitter

After speaking to Gary Jubelin on his I Catch Killers podcast, he said security measures must be reviewed where there are large public crowds.

“Questions have been raised if the guards in centres should be armed and it’s probably a discussion that absolutely needs to be had in terms of its benefits, but also the practical application,” he said.

“The guards would have to undergo several weeks of firearms training. Then there’s the issue of storage of those firearms, checking those firearms and ongoing training.

“There’s also the risk if the guards become overpowered … then that gun now gets in the hands of that perpetrator and he is now armed with a firearm.

“These are challenging times, and I think in terms of policing they’ve got it harder than they’ve ever had.”

Places of worship have also been on edge following the alleged stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel by a 16-year-old, which led police to discover he was part of a larger group of “religiously motivated violent extremists”.

A teenage attacker at the church in Wakeley, Sydney attacks Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel stabbing him multiple times.

Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel as he was allegedly stabbed during a service.at The Good Shepard Church in Sydney. Picture: Twitter

“If churches or any place of worship want to go to that point where they have armed guards, well then they’re quite entitled to but they would have to have a robust framework to address a hostile threat,” Mr Moroney said.

“This is a sad conversation that we’re going to have that if we now are going to talk about a place of worship having to do this.

“Why are we dealing with a place of worship now having to have a protocol around defenders it’s just ridiculous, and it defies logic. But unfortunately, it has happened.”

While he did acknowledge that a number of sectors already have protocols in place, more can be done.

Mr Moroney, who was credited with having designed and developed the force’s terrorism investigations course, now works in private investigations and has been involved in several state and federal government agency probes.

Former Detective Sergeant Peter Moroney. Picture: Tim Hunter

After a 16-year-old boy was charged with a terrorism offence following the alleged stabbing at a Sydney church, several teens were arrested in connection with the attack. Picture: Jeremy Piper

He said he has seen a surge in large corporate organisations “looking to understand potential threats” and ways to address it in a “balanced common sense approach”.

Mr Moroney’s father Ken Moroney AO APM MA, was also a police officer at the time 33-year-old taxi driver Wade Frankum went on a shooting rampage in 1991 at a shopping mall in Strathfield in Sydney’s inner west.

He went on to become the NSW Police Commissioner from 2002 until 2007.

Listen to Gary Jubelin chat to Peter Moroney on his I Catch Killers podcast.